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Four years ago, Jeremy Bowley went to work on his summer job and never came home.

On Monday, a coroner’s jury began to hear evidence surrounding the death of the 21-year-old Londoner who was electrocuted putting up a wedding tent near Watford.

The inquest, called in August, is focusing on workplace safety.

But an expert on occupational health and safety agreed the circumstances surrounding Bowley’s death were unusual and the existing regulations should have been adequate.

Filomena Savoia, the retired regional director for the Ministry of Labour’s western region, outlined what the ministry calls the “internal responsibility system” that promotes self-­reliance and self-compliance in workplaces.

Government inspectors do spot checks, but given the thousands of businesses and companies across Ontario, the onus is placed on employers to comply.

Signature Events Rental, the company for which Bowley worked, has already been fined $100,000 after pleading guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of the crew and not informing them of the danger of overhead wires.

Bowley died Aug. 1, 2013, while he and a crew were erecting a tent for a wedding on wet ground near Watford. One of the poles touched an overhead power line and Bowley was electrocuted. Two other Londoners, aged 17 and 25, were hurt.

Savoia told the six-person jury the ministry mandates joint health and safety committees for workplaces with 20 or more employees and a health and safety representative for businesses of 19 or less.

In the construction industry, she said, 45 per cent of the employers are small and don’t require committees.

There have been 511 workplace deaths in the last decade, she said, and 363 of them have been in the construction sector. Electrocution, the fourth most common cause among the fatalities, counted for 36 of those deaths.

The erection of a tent falls into the construction and industrial regulations, Savoia said.

Those regulations include having any object or equipment three metres from any power line and to take every precaution possible to keep equipment away from power lines.

The key is supervision and training, Savoia said. Also the ministry will send out alerts through websites and organizations about health and safety issues and do inspection blitzes on targeted sectors, she said.

Andrew Murray, the lawyer for Signature Events Rentals, asked if there had ever been a blitz on tent erection companies. Savoia said she didn’t know of any.

There are challenges in small companies to get health and safety information out, particularly when there are seasonal or vulnerable workers.

Ministry of Labour lawyer Indira Stewart asked on behalf of Bowley’s mother, Elisa Kilbourne, if there are definitions in the legislation for vulnerable workers or employers. Savoia said there aren’t.

The jury also heard from Kilbourne, who described her last communication with her son, and from pathologist Dr. Edward Tweedie, who confirmed Bowley died from an electrocution.